Suchergebnisse

How best to govern reproduction is the subject of heated controversies and policies on abortion and reproductive technologies present strong variations. Through fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, the article explores the interplay of institutional settings, Christian Democratic politics, women's movement, and Christian opposition in France and Switzerland since the 1970s. If little evidence is found for any institutional impact on policies regarding abortion and reproductive technologies, the analysis confirms the growing influence of the medical profession over reproductive issues and shows that the success of the women's movement has been fluctuating while prolife opposition seems to have gradually lost influence.

Résumé Dans la controverse publique relative à la régulation du secteur de la procréation médicalement assistée, les féministes jouèrent un rôle contrasté. Malgré un discours critique très similaire, la problématisation féministe connut une trajectoire très différente en France et en Suisse. En France, elle se heurta à une controverse publique centrée sur la légitimité du désir d'enfant, ce qui mit le mouvement féministe face à ses contradictions internes quant à la maternité et l'a rapidement exclu du débat. En Suisse, en revanche, le discours féministe sur la procréation médicalement assistée s'intégra dans une plus large contestation de la légitimité de la procréation médicalement assistée menée à la fois par la gauche et par les acteurs pro-life . Cette résonance du discours permit aux féministes en Suisse d'influencer de manière plus efficace la problématisation de la question des nouvelles technologies reproductives.

Feminist movements have played contrasting roles in the public controversy over regulation of the assisted reproductive technology sector. While adopting a similar critical discourse, the feminist problematization of the issue actually achieved its ends in very different ways in France and Switzerland. In France, feminist movements were faced with a public controversy mainly focused on the legitimacy of the desire for children. This left the French feminist movements with their own internal contradictions regarding women's mothering vocation and thus severely impaired their capacity to influence the debate. In Switzerland, on the contrary, the alarmist feminist discourse on reproductive technology coincided with the critical stance adopted by left-wing parties and, to some extent, pro-life movements. This discursive resonance gave the Swiss feminist movements greater leverage in the public debate. Adapted from the source document.